Pizza is a better morning meal than a bowl of cereal, says at least one nutritionist.
Pizza! Breakfast of Champions! https://t.co/iovqMJqNnC #health #pizza
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 30, 2019
Pizza! Breakfast of Champions! https://t.co/iovqMJqNnC #health #pizza
Sure, it has more fat than a bowl of cereal (even with whole milk). But it has a lot fewer carbs, less sugar (no mid-morning crash), more protein (feels more filling), and is a wash as to calories.
Just … heat it to a decent temperature, please. We’re not barbarians.
Got to play lots of game I’d not done before, which is always fun
We had a fine Game Day yesterday, simultaneously celebrating May and the return of the Boy for the summer break.
Best new discovery for me was Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu, which wedges the cooperative Pandemic rules into scurrying about various Massachusetts towns (Arkham, Dunswich, etc.) trying to stamp out cultists, drive off Shoggoths, and close portals to the elder gods, even as those damned cultists and Shoggoths keep waking the Old Ones up and slowly driving you mad.
I’ve never been a huge Pandemic fan, but for some reason the ruleset worked much better for me with different set dressing. Even though we lost at the last moment.
Another game played in the next room was Stuffed Fables, which looked like great fun — sort of D&D with stuffed animals on preset maps, telling a story. Hope to play it myself next time.
Potion Explosion was another fun one — it’s been here before, but I’d never managed to play it. Simple enough mechanics to make it enjoyable, even with enough strategizing needed to make it interesting, combined with randomizing elements and marbles.
Last one I got in on was Azul, which on one level is just sort of a filling-in-patterns, but is gorgeous and tactile and relatively simple and interesting and fun.
A couple of other games I didn’t get in on included a birthday-requested round of Settlers of Catan, and some folk in the other room having at 5-Minute Marvel and 10 Minutes to Kill; the latter got unenthusiastic-enough reviews that matched my previous play time with it that it may end up going to the donation bin (fun concept and cool art, but just not quite all that in game play).
Good times. Onwards toward Game Day in June!
It’s mostly a controversy for those who are trying to score anti-trans rhetorical points
An interesting Twitter thread here about controversies regarding transgender women competing in women’s sports. It not only points out the dubious nature of the criticisms (no, transwomen don’t dominate their sports, even though accused of the “unfair” advantage of having once been men) but the occasional hypocrisies of the criticisers as well.
The thread can be read more holistically here.
We’re happy to see James home for the summer, but not as happy as, it seems, the cats.
Dropping most state marriage paperwork is a good thing for sketchy reasons.
Alabama is ending state marriage licenses and ceremony requirements. File an affidavit and you're hitched. Apparently a way to keep some judges from getting pissy about having to issue same-sex marriage licenses, but whatever. https://t.co/fa7mfaiVwY
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 24, 2019
Alabama is ending state marriage licenses and ceremony requirements. File an affidavit and you’re hitched. Apparently a way to keep some judges from getting pissy about having to issue same-sex marriage licenses, but whatever.
https://t.co/fa7mfaiVwY
So this is kind of interesting. Alabama has been still struggling with government workers — probate judges in particular — refusing to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples, even though it’s been established as completely legal. Somehow they feel they are going to get sodomy cooties or something by “participating” in a marriage between two people of the same gender, even though there’s no sign that they do any similar vetting of all the other marriages they are willing to sign off on.
(Judicial signing of a marriage license indicates that it is a lawful marriage, not necessarily a moral one or praiseworthy one or attractive one or one that meets one’s interpretation of God’s approval. If the latter were the case, I would expect a whole lot fewer marriages, and a lot less patience for judges.)
Current Alabama law only says that a judge may sign licenses, so county probate judges who object to gay folk getting married have been refusing to sign any licenses, meaning people are sometimes forced to drive to another county to get their paperwork done, regardless of their sexual orientation.
Rather than telling people to do their job or get fired for it, Alabama is pulling an end run: they’re getting rid of marriage licenses and compulsory marriage ceremonies altogether. Now nobody has to “sign off” on a marriage except the participants.
That’s actually not a bad thing, even if it’s for, um, dubious reasons. Couples wanting to marry will now need only sign an affidavit that they are legal to do so. Zip-zoom, you may kiss your partner. No judges required to sign on the license. No officiant “solemnizing” and signing off that they witnessed the ceremony as an official witness. Like any other legal contract (which, from the perspective of the state, marriage is), the participants sign on the dotted line and it’s done.
It’s expected most folk will still want a wedding ceremony of some sort — gloom and doom predictions about the death of the marriage industry in Alabama seem wildly exaggerated to me. And now those probate judges who don’t want to sully their fingers dealing with Those People and Their Unholy Alliances (at least until there are wills to be probated) can remain ritually pure and pretend to virtue.
Would you like to know more?
Ascending Everest takes patience. But not in the way you might think.
People joke about dying whilst waiting in line. On Everest, the crowds are such that it's really happening. Risking your life that way seems kind of … goofy. https://t.co/naqtoqIxp7
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 24, 2019
People joke about dying whilst waiting in line. On Everest, the crowds are such that it’s really happening. Risking your life that way seems kind of … goofy. https://t.co/naqtoqIxp7
I understand, to a degree. The challenge of the nigh-unobtainable (and having a large amount of money and time and money to invest) makes ascending Everest a tempting challenge.
But … if the place is so damned crowded that people are actually dying waiting in line in the hostile environment to take their turn at the summit … is that really the “risk! risk is my business!” kind of thrill that these people are looking for? Is it bragging rights to the folk back home to say that you managed to outlast the queue?
“Because it’s there” is a stirring, heroic sentiment. “Please take a ticket and wait for your number to be called” is not.
Whatever Donald wants, Donald expects to get. And people know that.
I've worked for federal contractors, so I know how stringent and neutral the procurement process is. But why bother when you can get free airtime on Fox News and convince the President to personally intervene in contract awards on your behalf? #Trump https://t.co/qwiXsmmrpk
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 24, 2019
I’ve worked for federal contractors, so I know how stringent and neutral the procurement process is. But why bother when you can get free airtime on Fox News and convince the President to personally intervene in contract awards on your behalf? #Trump https://t.co/qwiXsmmrpk
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it (too many times) again: Donald Trump sees no difference between being President of the United States and being the head of his own privately held company. If he gets an idea in his head, whether spontaneous or instilled there by someone, he wants action take RIGHT NOW, and just what he wants. The ideas of personal constraints, tradition, regulation, or the law mean little to him — they are only obstacles for his lackies to overcome to serve him as he wants to be served.
The federal procurement process is lengthy, complex, and onerous, but it is 100% designed to do exactly what Donald Trump does not want: to be utterly neutral, fair, and immune to influence and corruption. It is by no means perfect, even in this, but that is its goal, to ensure that our tax dollars are spent, not on something that will enrich a friend or reward an ally, but on the best product / service that meets the exhaustively described parameters.
So, of course, Donald is perfectly happy to ignore that and put his thumb on the scales, influenced by an insidiously clever campaign on all the news outlets he sees, unable to understand why he can’t just say, “I like that guy, and that product,” and have the coffers open up to make it so. Process is for bureaucrats, regulation is for the weak — when you’re the smartest guy in the room and the most powerful, why can’t it just be the way you want it?
That, in and of itself, is bad enough. The inevitable icing on the cake is when someone figures out how to exploit that impulse.
Yeah, it didn’t quite work here. So far. Where else has it worked that we don’t know of (or have already forgotten in this shit-show administration)? Where else will it be tried? And does anyone really think that Donald Trump has absorbed and accepted the lesson ‘”that the president could not just pick a company” to get the contract in defiance of the federal procurement process”?
Do you want to know more? How one company used a Fox-centric PR strategy to try to get Trump to give it a lucrative federal contract
It’s a fascinating, if maddening, case of “The Big Lie”
Current propaganda from #FoxNews and #Trump is that the Dems aren't passing any legislation because of "wasting" all their time on investigations of the President. Not surprisingly, Fox News and Trump are lying. https://t.co/qHXnVcSYk3
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 24, 2019
Current propaganda from #FoxNews and #Trump is that the Dems aren’t passing any legislation because of “wasting” all their time on investigations of the President. Not surprisingly, Fox News and Trump are lying. https://t.co/qHXnVcSYk3
In reality, of course, the Dems have passed a variety of bills since taking the majority in the House, from the trivial to significant items like electoral reform. The issue is not that the Dems haven’t been passing anything, but that the GOP in the Senate (let alone That Guy in the White House) aren’t paying any attention. On any number of large legislative initiatives coming from the House, Mitch McConnell and the GOP have not only not bothered to show how the Republicans think problems should be solved, Mitch has kept even debate about it off of the Senate floor.
And now Trump is trying to pretend it isn’t happening.
Tattoos are art. Should they only last as long as the personal canvas?
I … appreciate the artistic sentiment here, but this just feels a bit … macabre. Maybe … some professionally done photos instead? https://t.co/uRjURtKpgS
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 24, 2019
I … appreciate the artistic sentiment here, but this just feels a bit … macabre. Maybe … some professionally done photos instead? https://t.co/uRjURtKpgS
Tattoo art is both highly personal and can be an actual work of art. But … saving your skin? For posterity?
Yyyeah, that starts to get into “Let’s taxiderm Uncle Bob and pose him in the corner. He’d make a great coat rack!”
Trump is apparently insisting the Irish PM pay court to him at Trump's Irish golf course, or else he'll skip the visit. Rudeness, vanity, greed, arrogance, and presumption, all in one package. https://t.co/iX6Vkw6sg4
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 19, 2019
Trump is apparently insisting the Irish PM pay court to him at Trump’s Irish golf course, or else he’ll skip the visit. Rudeness, vanity, greed, arrogance, and presumption, all in one package. https://t.co/iX6Vkw6sg4
Do you want to know more?
Picked up The Boy at the airport, home from college. Thoughtfully wore MOM and DAD name tags, and held up a SON placard, just in case he didn't recognize us. pic.twitter.com/UrrF7EKnJO
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 20, 2019
Picked up The Boy at the airport, home from college. Thoughtfully wore MOM and DAD name tags, and held up a SON placard, just in case he didn’t recognize us. https://t.co/UrrF7EKnJO
Remarkably enough, he was willing to actually acknowledge recognizing us.
We also drew a lot of smiles from folk arriving in the main terminal from the concourses (including one guy who yelled out, “Dad!”).
As a nation we once stood against discrimination, even when dressed up as “religious freedom”
Brown v. Board of Education—Supreme Court found segregated schools unconstitutional 65 years ago this week: pic.twitter.com/b2Li6CKViM
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) May 13, 2019
RT @BeschlossDC: Brown v. Board of Education—Supreme Court found segregated schools unconstitutional 65 years ago this week: https://t.co/b…
This week we commemorate the banning of “separate but [though it never was] equal” as a dodge to allow segregation.
Gosh, remember back when claims of “religious freedom” (as some folk used to defend “the Biblical separation of the races”) as an excuse for discrimination (racial discrimination in particular) were laughed out of court?
Yeah, I get nostalgic for those days, too.
If the only accusations allowed are those that are guaranteed to result in a conviction, then who will dare accuse?
There is a a massive difference between an accusation that is a lie and an accusation that is not sufficiently proven, or that a DA chooses not to pursue. This bill ignores that difference. What do you think will be the result? https://t.co/LBqDyQgX1n
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 13, 2019
There is a a massive difference between an accusation that is a lie and an accusation that is not sufficiently proven, or that a DA chooses not to pursue. This bill ignores that difference. What do you think will be the result?
https://t.co/LBqDyQgX1n
Alabama is looking at a law to make it a felony to falsely accuse someone of a sexual crime.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Dickie Drake, R-Leeds, would make falsely reporting a sex crime a Class C felony and punishable by up to 10 years in prison. If the accused is found not guilty, the accuser would be responsible for paying the accused person’s legal expenses.
Sexual assault and molestation are already known to be underreported, due to skepticism and calling into question motives to make the accusation and the fact that such cases often get reduced to a they-said-they-said. Given that our criminal justice system (not unwisely) requires criminal guilt be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, even when someone is brave enough to make a true accusation, it may not be provable in court.
This particular law turns all of that on its head. If your accusation doesn’t end up being sustained before a jury, or if the DA decides not to pursue the case (i.e., where “allegations are proven to be false”), you are instead then presumed guilty of filing a false charge and are now on the hook for the defendant’s legal costs and, potentially, jail time yourself.
The result? One more reason for rape and molestation victims to stay silent, unless they can be absolutely certain that a DA or jury will agree with their accusations.
Nobody wants to encourage false accusations … but this is a law that will demonstrably discourage true accusations. Is that what we really want?
Do you want to know more? Alabama bill would criminalize false rape accusations – al.com
We never elect the ideal. I am very clear what my level of compromise is.
My feelings vary on the different Dem nominees. None is perfect; some far less. But Every. Single. One. would be a vast improvement over the shitshow of Trump and his administration. Thrash out the differences in primaries, but don't forget that ultimate comparison. #Election2020 pic.twitter.com/0aXyZ8xUM9
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 12, 2019
My feelings vary on the different Dem nominees. None is perfect; some far less. But Every. Single. One. would be a vast improvement over the shitshow of Trump and his administration. Thrash out the differences in primaries, but don’t forget that ultimate comparison. #Election2020 https://t.co/0aXyZ8xUM9
There are folk running for the Democratic nomination who I like more than others. There are some who I think are too much part of a bygone era, and others whose temperaments I don’t trust, and others whose records have problems, and others who I don’t know are as proven as I would like them to be.
Even the least desirable of them, to my mind, would be a quantum leap over Donald J. Trump and his politics of ego, divisiveness, and destruction.
The next several months are the opportunity to have the debate about who is the best candidate, the one to lead the nation into the 2020s. But whoever gets the nomination, regardless of their (presently identifiable) flaws, will have my full support. Donald Trump is an existential threat to America, if not the planet. To my readers who are not Trump supporters, remember that. We can’t afford third party protest votes and “Meh, politicians” attitudes. That was demonstrated in 2016, and is part of the reason we are in the horrifying situation we are in today.
(Was Hillary my favoritest, most perfect person in the world to be President? Nope. I didn’t like her attitude about a number of things, I didn’t like how it was presumed she would be the candidate, and I have no doubt that with a GOP Senate and House it would have been another four years of destructive gridlock. But would she have been vastly better, feet of clay and all, than who we ended up with? Without question.)
Yes, I know it sounds just like the propagandists want it to sound, but, ultimately, no matter how enthusiastic I am (or aren’t), my 2020 choice is Anyone But Trump. I mean, yeah, it is barely conceivable that some further candidate might run for the Democratic nomination and get it who is actually worse (God save us all), but I can’t think of who it would be, and of the current Cast of Dozens vying for the role, I’ll be more than happy to campaign, donate, and vote for them against the incumbent.
Donald Trump has decided that the 4th of July is a great time for a political rally
I can say in all complete honesty that the last thing I want to do (and the least patriotic thing to do, in my opinion) on the Fourth of July is listen to Donald blather from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. https://t.co/NSiIn6mn1W #trump #IndependenceDay
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 11, 2019
I can say in all complete honesty that the last thing I want to do (and the least patriotic thing to do, in my opinion) on the Fourth of July is listen to Donald blather from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. https://t.co/NSiIn6mn1W #trump #IndependenceDay
Because of course the Federal Government should elbow the city of Washington, DC, aside, and turn the Fourth of July into a Trump-centric MAGApalooza celebration.
Also, Abraham Lincoln was an unassuming man of strong moral fiber, a reputation for honesty, admitted self-doubt, a dedication to preserving the unity of the nation, forgiveness toward his enemies, and self-deprecating humor. The idea of Donald Trump giving a speech from his memorial building is … appalling.
Do you want to know more? Trump moves DC July 4 fireworks display, plans to deliver remarks: report | TheHill
Blooming iris in the front yard. #SpringTime pic.twitter.com/Luy1jiQnA4
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 9, 2019
Blooming iris in the front yard. #SpringTime https://t.co/Luy1jiQnA4
China is in a campaign to literally tear down the cultural heritage of the Uighurs
China's in the US news largely over tariffs and trade wars that Trump is bombasting us into. But China's guilty of more profound crimes than currency manipulation or refusing to cater to the US President's publicity needs. https://t.co/v4XlP1P4hD
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 10, 2019
China’s in the US news largely over tariffs and trade wars that Trump is bombasting us into. But China’s guilty of more profound crimes than currency manipulation or refusing to cater to the US President’s publicity needs. https://t.co/v4XlP1P4hD
Not that US hands (or other nations, for that matter) have been clean in the past when it’s come to indigenous populations who “need” to be managed, pushed out of the way, or made more like “us”. But China’s doing it right now, in front of everyone’s eyes, and most of the concern is focused instead on trade and tariffs.
A great non-super-hero crime genre comic book is coming to TV this fall.
Oooh. Love "Stumptown" and love Cobie Smulders, so this might get me watching network TV this fall. https://t.co/OoMSIvdMob #Stumptown
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 9, 2019
Oooh. Love “Stumptown” and love Cobie Smulders, so this might get me watching network TV this fall. https://t.co/OoMSIvdMob #Stumptown
“Stumptown” is a great comic series by Greg Rucka (with able realistic art by Matthew Southworth, sort of a Portland-based noir detective tale. I’m tickled pink that it’s been picked up as a TV series. Here’s hoping ABC does it justice.
Do you want to know more?
Parents are claiming that explaining what #LGBTQ people are is too difficult, that their kids will be "confused." That seems to be their excuse, at least. https://t.co/J0dgFDLaFy
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 9, 2019
Parents are claiming that explaining what #LGBTQ people are is too difficult, that their kids will be “confused.” That seems to be their excuse, at least. https://t.co/J0dgFDLaFy
A California school district has found that a substantial number of parents don’t like the idea of their kids learning about “the accomplishments of LGBTQ Americans”.
But it’s not that they’re biased against gay and trans people! Perish the thought! It’s just that … well … having to answer questions from their third grade kids about what “LGBTQ” means is … um … tough.
Because clearly their first instinct is to have to talk about gay sex, and that’s clearly inappropriate. But if they tone it down to say it’s “boys who get married to other boys” or “girls who get married to other girls,” etc., well, that’s, um, kind of making it sound like something normal. Acceptable. Allowed.
And … well … we can’t have that, can we?
Having defied the Legislative branch, now he’s decided to hobble the Judicial branch
Having spent the week thumbing his nose at the Legislative branch, Trump is pivoting to attack the Judicial branch. https://t.co/EHItrBkCpE
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 9, 2019
Having spent the week thumbing his nose at the Legislative branch, Trump is pivoting to attack the Judicial branch. https://t.co/EHItrBkCpE
Donald Trump seems convinced that the US Government should be run like a business — in terms of a personally owned business where he can give orders and they get obeyed. Unfortunately, this whole thing about “laws” and “the Constitution” (if, clearly, not “tradition” and “shame”) keep getting in the way.
So, having spent the past week or two telling his co-equal branch of government — Congress — that they’re not the boss of him now, he’s now working to keep the federal courts from restricting him from doing whatever the hell he decides he wants to do.
